Many lives are lost each year because people are trapped in burning indoor areas and are unable to locate an exit in heavy smoke. In many cases, fire alarms are properly activated and emergency exit signs are illuminated. However, typical alarms only warn that there is a fire or other emergency, not the location of an exit. There are conventional exit signs, but such are not typically associated and coordinated with an alarm system. Such emergency exit lights are usually placed over doors. Since smoke fills a room from the ceiling down, these lights are quickly obscured by smoke.
Typical of the art are devices which activate an exit light or a light near a door in the event of a fire or other emergency condition. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,929, issued to Minter, an egress detection system is disclosed that includes an indicator unit having at least three electroluminescent lamps in a linear arrangement near an exit with associated electrical circuitry in a control unit. The lamps are sequentially lit during an emergency, with actuation in response to a smoke alarm triggered electrical sensor that is electrically connected by electrical wiring to the control unit and to the lamps. The system is located near the smoke detector but not on the exit door due to electrical wiring limitation.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,115, issued to Cota, a fire or smoke detection and alarm system is disclosed that is installed near an exit door. The system includes an enclosure that houses electrical circuitry for detection of smoke and/or fire, plus electrical connectors for actuation of a stroboscopic flashing lamp and an audio alarm that are located within the enclosure. The system can be installed at a wall position near the exit door, or as a free-standing unit for signaling in a smoke filled room.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,376, issued to Frank, a visual fire alarm apparatus is disclosed that includes audible and portable visual alarms. The visual alarms include high intensity lamp units that are portable and mountable in a hallway or alternately immediately adjacent to the opposite sides of an exit door. The lamp units are located to create bursts of light beams below the normal lower smoke level in a room. A low voltage wiring system for electrical connection between the smoke detector and lamp units is required.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,114, issued to Topol et al., an intelligent fire safety system is disclosed that includes exit sign units that receive communications from the central station unit that is coupled to a smoke sensor and a heat sensor. The system includes a speech synthesizer and a strobe light to provide alerting sounds and light to an occupant of a room in an emergency situation. The system can be coupled by electrical wiring or optic fibers to multiple floors for inter-floor alert messages.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,524,304, issued to Todd, a smoke alarm activated portable light bulb is disclosed that is activated in response to the sound emitted by a smoke alarm device. The associated circuitry has filtering circuitry to ignore extraneous noise signals, has low battery drain features, and requires electrical connectors to actuate the light bulb.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,308, issued to Logan et al., an emergency exit indicator system is disclosed that drops from a housing to illuminate an area beside a door. The system includes a light that is tethered at an elevated location above an emergency exit, with the strobe light dropped to a position suspended just above the floor when a smoke detector detects dangerous levels of smoke. The actuation circuitry is connected by electrical connectors to a nearby alarm indicator.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,422,069, issued to Edstrom et al., a system for indicating an emergency exit is disclosed that includes flashing high intensity lights positionable near the floor at an exit. The lights are actuated by a fire detector device with nearby associated triggering circuitry connected to the detector by electrical connectors.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,283,657, issued to Gordon et al., an exit illuminating system is disclosed that includes high intensity lights that are actuated by an emergency condition detector responsive to a power failure, smoke, and heat. The circuitry for actuation requires electrical connectors to a power supply and to smoke sensor for continuous monitoring and actuation.
However, none of the prior devices are positioned on the exit door or directly illuminates the base of the exit due to limitations in electrical connections with an exit door mounted unit. Rather, the devices illuminate an area near, above, or beside the exit. Thus, a person caught in a fire may be led to an area near an exit door but might then wander to the wrong side of the exit door or to an adjacent interior exit door, missing the exit door. A disoriented person may finally find the exit door after multiple seconds or after a minute. However, in a high heat and heavy smoke situation, a few seconds can be the difference between life and death. In addition, for a system to be truly effective, it must warn people in areas which have yet to be affected by the fire or other emergency condition.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved detector actuated escape system that is activated by remote sensing of smoke or fire, and is configured to actuate self-contained, multiple light sources placed on a lower area of an exit door to illuminate the exit door in an emergency situation of poor visibility for a person crawling on the floor.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention is to detect an emergency condition indoors by remote sensing of high heat or smoke accumulation.
It is another object of this invention to provide a light which illuminates an exit door base during an emergency situation of low visibility such as an indoor fire.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an audible alarm in case of an emergency situation of high background noise.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a light on the lower base of an exit that is highly visible through smoke and is self-contained.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a self-contained alarm signal receiver, power source, control circuitry, and a plurality of light in a unit mountable on any sized exit door.